But GERD sufferers can actually learn to coexist with foods if they know which ones to consume and which to avoid in an effort to cut down on the heartburn they are experiencing on a constant basis.

It takes more than just healthy eating when you want to rid your body of heartburn. Still, following the guidelines of the food pyramid is a good place to start. People who have GERD may need to follow some additional guidelines for their eating regimen.

Your goal with GERD is to ease heartburn symptoms by eliminating increased acid production in your stomach and soothing your irritated esophagus and the lining meant to protect your body.

Looking at the food pyramid, you will notice that whole grains should be a top priority for everyone - but with GERD sufferers, it is even more crucial to your health and wellness. The key is to focus on whole grains and let breads made with lots of fats stay on the shelf at the grocery store.

The next step in the pyramid tells consumers to fill up on fruits and vegetables. But when you have GERD, not all fruits and veggies create an amicable atmosphere in your body.

Certain fruits, like apples, grapes, and pears, can be beneficial to your health. But eating anything with citric acid in it, like oranges, lemons, limes, or grapefruit, can instantly result in a strong case of heartburn.

Almost all vegetables are good choices for those who have GERD, but make sure you prepare them healthfully and not laden in fats and oils that will trigger your heartburn symptoms.

When it comes to meat foods, you want to ensure you focus on low-fat proteins, which means lean meats that will not aggravate your GERD condition. For example, instead of buying marbled beef, choose the lean variety.

As with your vegetables, if you want to lessen the chance that you will be nursing your heartburn after dinner, cook the meats in a healthy manner, like baking, grilling, or broiling them to help prevent your GERD symptoms from flaring.

Since most people experience heartburn at night, it is best to limit your nighttime eating. Try to finish eating two to three hours before you go to bed. If you are a late-night snacker, then look for another habit to pursue before you get some shut-eye.

What you eat is as important as when you eat when it comes to eliminating heartburn. Acidic foods can increase the occurrence of heartburn. Try to avoid certain drinks like juice, coffee and alcohol.

Sometimes the foods themselves seem okay, but they cause your body to produce acid, which also creates heartburn symptoms. Spicy foods like peppers or high-fat foods like candy can result in heartburn. Tomato-based foods like pizza and spaghetti will almost always cause heartburn if the person eating them is prone to feeling the inner burn.

Another factor in staying free from heartburn symptoms is to limit the amount of food that you eat. Do not overindulge during your meals. When your stomach is too full, the food literally gets pushed back up into the esophagus and because it is mixed with the acid in your stomach, it creates the burning sensation.

Overweight individuals will notice a decrease in their heartburn symptoms when they lose a few pounds. Doctors suspect that it is because the body has more room to process the food and the stomach is not being pressed and causing food to return to the esophagus.

After you eat a meal and especially if you have stuffed yourself, try to stay upright instead of laying down to rest. This prevents the food from being pushed back up to the esophagus and gives it more time to digest.

Overweight heartburn sufferers are not the only ones who can make lifestyle changes for the better. Smokers can get rid of heartburn, too. When you smoke, the esophageal muscles do not work as well, so the contents of your stomach are more easily released back into your esophagus.

Plus, the stomach acid is more toxic due to the extra chemicals that you have put in your body. Every time you puff on a cigarette, you are increasing your odds of getting heartburn because you are weakening the esophageal lining and allowing acids to irritate it more easily and effectively.

Not everyone will find a lifestyle cure that works for them. Some people will be forced to seek treatment for their heartburn or GERD from a licensed medical professional.

The correct medical term for dry skin is Xeroderma, which comes from the Greek xeros meaning ‘dry’ and derma meaning ’skin’. The condition affects what is formally known as the integumentary system, a human’s largest and heaviest organ.

To the layman, skin is normally not regarded as an organ, such as the heart or pancreas, however, medically speaking it is. The formal definition of an organ is:

“A natural part or structure in an animal or a plant, capable of performing some special action (termed its function), which is essential to the life or well-being of the whole.”

The integumentary system is the external covering of the body, in humans comprising of the skin, hair, nails, sweat glands and their products (sweat and mucus). The integumentary system has a variety of functions; in animals, it may serve to waterproof, cushion and protect the deeper tissues, excrete wastes, regulate temperature and is the location of sensory receptors for pain, pressure and temperature. The name derives from the Latin integumentum, which means ‘a covering’.

In most cases, this condition occurs because your body has lost important natural oils and moisture from its cell walls, which causes your skin to become abnormally dry. Since the skin is composed of several layers, the individual’s reaction to this may be different depending on the extent of the condition.

For most patients, the only necessary treatment for dry skin is to take better care of it and to use moisturizers and emollients on the skin. These items will replenish the lost moisture and oils in the skin, allowing your body to recover because it now has what it needs to remain healthy. For more serious conditions where the skin is damaged through being too dry, there are prescription ointments and moisturizers that can be administered to correct the situation.

Xeroderma happens throughout the body, but there are some areas where it occurs much more frequently. The most common areas affected are the hands, face and/or neck area. Dry skin is also often found on the lower legs, arms, thighs and the side of the torso near the abdomen.

If you are suffering from Xeroderma or dry skin your symptoms can vary in severity. Usually, you will experience scaling which is actually the loss of the first layer of the outer skin on your body. This is commonly a clearly visible sign. Other indications include itching and even in extreme cases, cracks appearing in the skin. This is often the case for those that suffer from dry skin on their feet.

Almost everyone encounters heartburn at least once in his or her life. Maybe it was that spicy meal they ate too late at night, or the fact that they are carrying twins and are in the late stages of pregnancy.

But for some, the burn never eases, and what was originally thought to be heartburn is turned into a disease that can wreak havoc on your life - emotionally and physically, causing sleep deprivation and misery on a daily basis.

Sometimes an over-the-counter medication can remedy the problem, but if it continues, you may need stronger solutions to battle your GERD symptoms. One of the biggest determinants in finding out if you have heartburn or GERD is the frequency of your symptoms.

If it is chronic, then it is more serious than an occasional case of indigestion. GERD victims often have heartburn more than twice a week and the burning sensation lasts longer than someone not suffering from GERD.

Many who have the more serious form of this problem find it hard to swallow during the moments when they are feeling the burn in their chest. GERD is also harder to cure with ordinary medications. A simple antacid may not work for you when you need relief immediately.

While most heartburn happens at night, it can actually take place at any time of the day. But those who have GERD notice it flaring up at night when they are trying to get to sleep or stay asleep.

If you have heartburn, you want to track your symptoms not just for frequency, but also for severity. What triggered the severe symptoms? You want to notice these factors before you go to a physician for a solution to your heartburn or GERD issues.

If you notice that your entire lifestyle is being altered because you fear the onset of heartburn, then it may be an indicator that you will be diagnosed with GERD and not just an occasional case of heartburn.

You do not have to let heartburn interrupt your enjoyment of life. Suffering from GERD is not necessary with the advanced treatments that are available today, ranging from medications to surgery for severe cases. Do not let heartburn rule your life. Take control of your symptoms and solutions by finding a cure that works best for you.

Problems with Conventional Medicines

Some conventional medications work very well for treatment of migraine headaches, with others effective in helping tension headaches. However, it has been shown, overall, they are not effective in treating a wide range of headaches. Worse, they can cause an ordinary migraine (if there is such a thing) to change into something named Chronic Daily Headache (CDH), which presents an even bigger problem because it is much more difficult to treat patients who suffer from this type of headache.

As implied by the name CDH can occur 15 times or more in a single month. The fact that a headache being treated by a headache medication can change into another type of headache can only be deemed ironic. Further increasing this dilemma is that CDH is shown to be on the rise, prompting both patients and doctors alike to seek alternative remedies.

Most headaches are triggered by factors like certain types of food or too little sleep and while precautions can be taken by a headache sufferer, it is not always feasible to do so. If these triggers cannot be avoided and medicines are not that reliable, what other method is there?

Acupuncture Therapy

Acupuncture has been used as an alternative therapy in Eastern cultures for more than 5,000 years. Acupuncture involves the practice of inserting extremely fine needles at certain points in the body. The needles are then left in place for a period ranging from just moments to several hours.

Practitioners of oriental medicine believe that the body has an energy force, called Qi (pronounced chee), which can at times become unbalanced. Placing needles in precise locations on the body where they believe energy lines are near the skin’s surface can balance the Qi, thus providing healing to the patient.

While acupuncture has been used in healing for a very long time, its effectiveness in the treatment of headaches has only recently been studied in any great depth.

Studies Prove Acupuncture Works

In a study from the UK, which was published by the prestigious British Medical Journal (BMJ), it was shown sufferers who were often absent from work because of headache pain took fewer sick days after they underwent acupuncture treatments for a period of three months. In the United States, a study conducted by the University of North Carolina provided results which showed definite improvements for CDH sufferers after acupuncture treatment.

Some Interesting Results

In Germany, two studies revealed that acupuncture helped those with migraine and tension headaches as compared to sufferers who did not receive any acupuncture at all. However, no real difference could be determined between real acupuncture and placebo acupuncture run as a control. Placebo acupuncture inserts the needles into areas without any known benefits. The leads to the conclusion that either the beneficial results are due to simple suggestion or that the placebo acupuncture inadvertently tapped into an as yet unknown function of the human body.

No matter what the results of the German studies showed, the BMJ study was sufficient to persuade the (taxpayer-financed) British National Heath Service. Many General Practitioners (GPs) within the UK have now begun to offer acupuncture as an alternative headache treatment without any harmful side effects.

What is Dry Skin?

Dry skin is just what it sounds like. For some reason, the moisture that is in your skin is no longer there. For most people, the body produces a number of different natural oils that keep the skin moist and soft. It does this not only so that your skin is soft but so that it is less likely to be injured. When you are suffering from dry skin, for some reason, your body has reduced the amount of oils that it is producing. Alternatively, you are washing away those oils so often that your body cannot compensate and your skin is left feeling dry, itchy and perhaps even painful.

There are several ways that this can happen. Most commonly, it is how you are taking care of your skin, or rather neglecting to do so. First of all, exposure to the weather elements can cause damage to the skin. For example, during the winter many people get dry skin because the wind, cold air and the lowered temperatures have caused their bodies to lose those all important natural oils.

If the air in your home is dry, this too can cause your skin to become dry. Air pulls moisture from any place it can and if your skin is moister than the air around it, the moisture is naturally pulled out. Another common reason for dry skin is bathing is water that is very hot and doing so often. This too can cause your skin to lose those natural oils that are helping to keep the skin moist.

All of these conditions can be prevented by behaviour modification and/or environmental control. However, for some, medical conditions are to blame for their dry skin. When that is the case, it is even more important to seek out the help of your doctor. Often, there is help available for your condition whether it is just applying lotions or taking better care of your skin in the first place.

Thank you for visiting, please check back soon.

Update: 01 Nov 2007

The maintenance work took much longer than originally anticipated, but we are now restoring the old articles and adding new ones. This process is on-going and should be complete by the end of February 2008.

Last Updated: 29 Jan 2008